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iLounge Game Spotlight: Beyond Gravity

Qwiboo’s Beyond Gravity ($2) comes to iOS after debuting earlier on a number of other platforms. A simple platformer, Beyond Gravity is “procedurally generated,” so that each run through the game is a completely different experience. The title is currently on sale for $1, as a special launch price.

Beyond Gravity puts you in the jumpy shoes of a space explorer who’s trying to pick up the missing parts of his spaceship. To do so, he must jump between constantly rotating planets, nabbing floating pieces along the way. It’s a clean looking game with neat art. No in-app purchases are included, which is always nice.

This is a simple game with simple controls — very simple controls. You tap the screen to jump. That’s it. You can hold your finger down to delay your jump, in case you’re waiting to avoid meteors. The explorer can also double-jump, in case that first launch goes a bit awry. But if you completely miss a planet or hit a meteor with a poorly-placed jump, it’s time to start all over again.

There are plenty of achievements and character upgrades included in Beyond Gravity, and they’re more rewarding when you can concentrate on the game without having to worry about in-app purchases. For instance, after accumulating 10,000 screws — yeah, those parts are mostly screws — you can increase your jumping speed. Or perhaps you want to spend 20,000 screws on the ability to triple jump. It’ll be enough reason for some gamers to keep playing.

One reason you might want to stop playing is the lack of variety in the gameplay. Jumping from planet to planet can get a little boring at times — we actually looked forward to dodging the moving meteors, and landing on planets that rotated in the opposite direction. It’s not that anything feels like it’s missing, exactly, but the developer probably could have added a few more twists without losing the simplicity of the control scheme.

Beyond Gravity is a smooth, sharp looking game that will keep many players occupied. The simple controls will be a plus to some gamers, as well. But we still get the feeling it’s not as addictive as it could have been. A few added dimensions — planets with different properties, or some power-ups you could pick up in the course of a run, perhaps — would have done wonders for the replay value without changing the core of the game itself. As it stands, Beyond Gravity is a solid, inexpensive platformer.